still strange

The atmosphere is still strange – America sometimes feels like a big and small place at the same time. I think that working in a downtown environment (although downtown Minneapolis is way smaller than New York) makes the attack feel closer to home, and although New York is a long way away, everyone seems to know someone who lives or works there.

The TV and news coverage is still incessant, although it seems like most networks are getting back to normal – showing commercials and regular programs again. Slate.com has continued to impress me with the depth and thoughtfulness of their coverage, but a lot of the best information is first-hand through weblogs. This one was linked to from the front page of Blogger and has amazing pictures and moving words.

Work is going on pretty much as usual – it surprises me that they had three minutes of silence in many businesses in Europe today, but not here. I have the feeling that the morning service at St Mark’s is going to be hard going, although on Wednesday night we were rehearsing music which wasn’t too morose. Not wanting our spirit to be dampened I guess. All the flags I’ve seen are at half staff, and a lot of office buildings and homes have put flags out. There are still hardly any commercial flights going over, and it’s strange how you notice the absence of sound. On Tuesday night we heard what we thought was thunder, but it was F-16 jets patrolling, and they’re still around. I’m trying to work out if this is comforting.